Ultimate Italian Cookbook: Over 200 Authentic Recipes from All Over Italy

I've had this book for years and consistently go to it for ragus, risottos, pizzas and more. Easy to follow instructions and uses everyday ingrediants. You won't be disapointed.

Our local library has a copy of this cookbook and we've taken it out many times. I think it is our single favorite cookbook. For whatever reason the all the recipes we've tried seem to translate well into delicious food on the table. Not all cookbooks do this. The recipes and ingredients are very straightforward. We have a friend who is a first-generation Italian; we had her and her husband over for dinner and served them the saltimbocca, polenta and chick pea soup from this cookbook. She was genuinely enthusiastic and asked for the recipes. She said the soup was the closest thing she'd had to her mother's. That was the ultimate compliment. The book is filled with color photographs that are very helpful. So now we've finally purchased our own copy and don't have to worry about splattering the library's copy with olive oil.

This is a very good place to start if you are new to cooking Italian food, or even if you are somewhat of a novice cook altogether. The pictures are very helpful and they show you what to do every step of the way. It's very uplifting to end with a finished product that looks the same as the one in the book and even better when everyone raves about the taste! I recommend this book very highly.

Okay, this isn't the definitive Italian cookbook, but for beginners this book covers a lot of basics in both recipes and techniques. I bought this while I was a college student for $5 at a "Books-a-Million" store about 12 years ago. I have so many dog-eared pages, notes and post-its in the book that it's a miracle that it still closes. It now has a place of honor on the art shelf in my kitchen. I have gifted this cookbook (there's a newer edition that I found recently at Borders & Waldenbooks) to many people in my family and my husband's family. Were it not for Carla Capalbo, I probably wouldn't have tried Baked Eggs with Tomatoes (delicious!), Lasagne made with homemade meat sauce and bechamel instead of ricotta/cottage cheese (a true time-consuming dish of love), Potatoes baked with Tomatoes, Spaghetti with Walnut Sauce, Pork Fillets with Caper Sauce, Ham and Cheese Veal Escalops, etc... We've made her homemade pizza, gnocchi, foccacia... You name it, I've made it from this cookbook with great success. There are a lot of quick and easy dishes as well as afternoon project meals. Find this book and gift it to someone who's just starting out on their own or just learning to cook. Most of the ingredients are cheap and easy to find. A lot of the newer celebrity chef cookbooks have exotic ingredients that can be difficult to locate in small-town America. Sure, foodie snobs will turn up their noses at this book and probably prefer Giada DiLaurentis' stuff but you know what? This book is all about the food--not the author.

Lovely pictures illustrate step- by step -- fool proof! One book I would never leave behind. Travelling due to my husbands proffession limits personal items - but this one will remain close to my heart. Dinner partys are wonderful, and all those compliments!!! Must not leave home without it!